Journal Prompt: The Perfect Rainy Day

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Out of boredom, I asked AI to generate some writing prompts for me. It has been a while since I wrote anything here, and I really wanted to give my mind a little exercise. The system gave me a lot of suggestions, but one specifically caught my eye: Describe your perfect rainy day. I figured it would be interesting to look at this through different phases of my life


When I was a kid, back around 2007 to 2009, a rainy day meant sitting right by our window to watch the pitter-patter on the glass. We were living in a small subdivision at the time. My late mommy Belen absolutely loved flowers and plants, so whenever it rained, I made sure to sit there and watch her garden get watered by the downpour. Looking back, this is probably the reason why I recharge in isolation and love silence. That was basically my childhood. My family was never really sociable, and we kept to ourselves most of the time. Socializing is actually an aspect of my life that I am still actively working on in adulthood.


Now that I am actually thinking about it, I don't remember a single rainy day during my stay in Iligan from 2011 to 2017. It is so odd, but I just can't seem to recall any. In my memories, that entire chapter of my life was just completely sunny. So, I guess I will have to skip that part for now.


I'll also be skipping my teenage years and the ones where I started to work because everything seems foggy and incoherent to me. It shows how little I valued my present back then, since I don't remember the mundane.


But one moment stood out in 2020. This was during the pandemic, I took my afternoon nap after working overtime that week. I woke up with the sky in reddish hue and it was raining. It felt surreal at the time. Groggy from my nap, I managed to take a photo and video to go with it. Forever remembering that moment. I guess I have always been a sentimental person at heart.


Now that I am in my late twenties, my view of the rain has shifted again. I live near the sea now, and whenever it rains, I love listening to the strong crash of the waves and the deep silence that comes right after. I always find myself looking up at the gloomy sky, finding a strange comfort in it. These days, the rain also brings back memories of the time I spent at my partner's home, watching movies with his family, and how loud I squealed every time a frog hopped by. 


It is funny how a simple prompt can bring back  these moments of my past. From watching my mommy's garden to waking up to a reddish sky, and now listening to the ocean, the rain has always had a way of keeping me sentimental, forcing me to slow down, and reminding me of who I am.

A sentimental through and through.


-E. 

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